Secret Six #1 Reveals the Chaotic, Personal Aftermath of Absolute Power (Review)

In the wake of Absolute Power, things have started to return to normal — albeit a new normal — in the DC Universe. The Justice League is back, superheroes have their powers again, and Amanda Waller is finally getting her comeuppance, now behind bars as the war criminal that she is. But things settling back into a rhythm doesn’t mean things have been set right — or that things are over. That’s where Secret Six #1 from writer Nicole Maines and artist Stephen Segovia comes in. The first issue of the six-issue series sees Nia Nal/Dreamer dealing with the fallout of Absolute Power and her role in it while simultaneously having to deal with a new major issue: the disappearance of Amanda Waller and all her secrets. It’s an intriguing setup, especially when factoring in that to accomplish this three heroes will have to team up with three villains and somehow not implode in the process — but the first issue struggles a bit to find its footing.

Secret Six #1 opens up with a sense of unease. Jon Kent is battling Bizarro while trying to convince himself that what Waller did to, well, everyone is actually over only for him to come home and see that things are clearly not over for his boyfriend Jay while elsewhere, Nia is having some sort of nightmare herself. It all collides when Nia shows up on Jon and Jay’s doorstep to reveal that Waller is missing from Belle Reve. The development means that the trio need to go to Belle Reve together to get to the bottom of things and that itself proves to be problematic. You see, while Jon is forgiving of Nia for what happened — namely what happened in Gamorra that resulted in the death of Jay’s mother — Jay is absolutely not willing to accept that Nia was also a victim of Waller. In fact, it seems that no one but Jon is willing to see Nia as anything but bad.

[RELATED: Why DC’s Absolute Power Was One of Its Best Crossover Events]

As the issue progresses, Nia and the others start to realize that something is very off about whatever is going on at Belle Reve and with Waller which in turn leads them to escape — with Black Alice — to a secret house in Vermont where they end up with Deadshot and Catman. It’s messy, it’s chaotic, but it is clear that something big is going on as Nia has started piecing together that some of the things she’s picking up on are connected to what she saw in her nightmare.

Unfortunately, it’s the chaos of the issue that sort of brings everything down. Secret Six #1 struggles a bit to find its footing with things making the issue feel a bit top heavy. Most of the issue feels like it is spent driving home the idea that no one likes Nia anymore and that she’s been painted into a villain corner — and it’s something that seems almost overdone. While it’s understandable to an extent that Jay and others would have a hard time dealing with the events of Absolute Power, it’s also been made pretty clear how Waller manipulated people and that Nia was also a victim of her machinations. There’s just something about the dynamic between Jay and Nia here that rings false or, if not false, too dialed up. 

Beyond that, when we move into the big action moment that ostensibly puts Nia, Jay, Jon, and Black Alice into position to form a new Secret Six, it is a sequence that is hard to follow, both visually and narratively. I read the sequence no fewer than six times and am still not entirely clear on what exactly happened and why, just that everyone ended up with Deadshot and Catman for some reason and that Nia is possibly seeing things — things being Amanda Waller.

Overall, there’s certainly a lot of potential here Maines has done some excellent work in building Nia as a character and the idea of exploring the fallout of what went down in Absolute Power — and what it looks like to bring together villains and heroes when dealing with exactly that — is a story worth pursuing. It’s just that this opening issue feels a little like it is still trying to work out its tone and its pacing so that the larger story can do just that.

Rating 3 out of 5

Published by DC Comics

On March 5, 2025

Written by Nicole Maines

Art by Stephen Segovia

Colors by Rain Beredo

Letters by Steve Wands